Infant&#39;s self-feeding dish



March 23, 1954 c. s. LA TOUR 2,672,697 INFANTS SELF-FEEDING DISH FiledSept. 13, 1951 Patented Mar. 23, 1954 INFANTS SELF-FEEDING DISHClifl'ord S. La Tour, Milwaukee, Wis., assignor to Lyn-ChicagoCorporation, Chicago, 111., a corporation of Illinois ApplicationSeptember 13, 1951, Serial No. 246,397

2 Claims.

. The present invention relates to infants selffeeding dishes, and is adivision of my copending application Serial No. 66,906, which wasfilledDecember 23, 1948, now Patent No. 2,596,255, for an Infant's FeedingSet. More particularly, the invention is concerned with the provision ofa specially shaped dish which primarily is for use by an infant at theage when he is first learning to feed himself.

It has been learned that right or left-handedness in later life can beinfluenced to a great extent at the time an infant is first beginning touse his hands for grasping objects placed near him. Particularly, it hasbeen learned that one of the strongest early influences on handedness isthe eating habits developed by a child when hefirst begins to feedhimself. It is known, of course, that left-handedness in an individualis a substantial handicap because of the fact that many operations aredesigned to be performed most easily in a right-handed manner, and muchequipment must be specially constructed at higher cost if it is to beoperated by a left-handed person. Also, left-handed eating is a socialhandicap, since it tends to interfere with the person seated to theleft.

In view of the above, it is the principal object of my invention toprovide a novel, specially constructed dish for the use of an infant atthe time he begins feeding himself, which makes righthanded feedingextremely easy, and left-handed eating substantially impossible, therebyencouraging the early development of right-handedness.

Yet another object of the present invention is to provide an infantsfood dish which cannot easily be picked up, thereby making food spillingless likely.

Still another object is to provide an infant's dish which encourages theinfant to lean forward while eating, thereby making the spilling of foodfrom the spoon less likely.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent from the followingdescription of a preferred embodiment of my invention, which isillustrated in the accompanying drawings.

In the drawings,

Fig. 1 is a high, front perspective view of a dish constructed accordingto the present invention;

Fig. 2 is a vertical sectional view which may be considered as taken inthe direction of the arrows substantially along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 3 is a vertical sectional view which may be considered as taken inthe direction of the arrows substantially along the line 3-3 of Fig. 1;and

Fig. 4 is a right-hand end view of the dish.

The dish shown in the drawings may be formed of ceramic material, or maybe molded of any of a number of suitable plastic materials, or may beformed of metal or the like. In general, it is formed to provide aconcavely curved front edge In which is connected by well rounded frontcorners l2 to side edges M which are substantially straight, but whichare angled toward each other so that the back of the dish at It isnarrower than the front. The side edges M are smoothly rounded into theback edge I 6.

Preferably, the front and side faces l8 and 20, respectively, convergetoward the top so that the top surface 22 of the dish is somewhatsmaller than. the bottom surface thereof. This configuration has theadvantage of making the dish difficult to grasp, thereby preventing itsbeing picked u and the contents spilled.

In the top surface of the dish, two depressions or food pockets 24 and26 are provided in side by side relation, and since these two pocketsare substantially identical in conformation, only one need be described.The shape of the right-hand pocket 26 is such that as is best shown inFig. 3, the depressed surface slopes at a gradual angle in a downwardand forward direction from the rear right-hand corner of the dish, sothat, as shown at Fig. 3, the lowermost portion of the food pocketindicated at 28, is quite close to the front edge of the dish.Rearwardly of this point the surface curves gradually upwardly andbackwardly, so that it meets the top edge of the dish, as has beenpreviously explained, at a quite oblique angle. From the lowermostpoint, that is, the point 28, the surface of the depression curvesforwardly and upwardly and thence backwardly and upwardly to form ahorizontal semicircular portion 30 near the front of the dish, with thetop edge 32 of the opening overhanging the forwardmost portion 30 of thepocket. This forms an overhanging lip, the purpose of which will beindicated presently.

The line of the section 3-3 follows approximately the line an infantusing a spoon will usually take with the bowl of the spool in obtainingfood from the dish. That is, the tendency is to dip the spoon into thedepression rearwardly and to the'right of the position from whichthespoon is lifted, if the spoon is used in a righthanded manner.

It will be seen, therefore. that since the deepest portion of the dishat 28 is overhung by the hp at 32, particularly when it is consideredthat the infant will be at a position somewhat forwardly of the edge ofthe dish, that the-food will be difflcult to obtain by any spoon motionexcepting one which is directed forwardly, downwardly, and to the left.Obtaining of the food in this manner is greatly facilitated,particularly when the level of the food is low, by the rounded portion30 which forms the overhanging lip 32. This is be au e th s eep of th @999 e re s ly along the "bottom of the dish, and thence inpwardly aroundthe curved edge 30, will have the effect of causing the food beingpushed ahead of the spoon to be crowded into thespoon bowl.

The surface of the pocket in the dish also slopes gradually downwardlyfrom the ight to; ward the left, as shown in :Fig. 2 so as to zpro: videan overhanging lip 34 along the left-hand edge of the pocket similar tothe ,one just ides scribed. In other words, the left-hand edge 34 andthe front edge 32, both overhang to :a con.- siderable extent, as doesthe corner 36 where these We led e iiQin- 9 th ether hand t e wa d nd ih -h nd ed e f t e e e i e e e smee hl -h-i l a h o h a the -r.-., s ar@92 1?! 3B,,h erge hie the sheer sl i-e ea i the a ansh ah ahs -hy ot o{Di-1 i eeh ih di h t re e e i pu n feed, i mere ef e i if thi i e hforw rd y e 1. th ft, ea 9h in het e h- Oh he other his he histam nefeed by he mo n of a s eep at as sha e ei 11 degre s he th dh eh Je tgiven (which is nonmal for va left-handed peris ts hw iaht e s h e, heat a t e heeahse the i e l sar so tha th rehh h hi n ahhu ilv'a ie ass ne e e'ei the reeh h has a ee ha hes is sheie away ie we of the s ad-M1ene 9 the hemm- 7 it hea he d :el eh-ihg Z4 i subst nt a The 2 a th ugh,

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- a ih e th h ,ihe 9 .e d h I18 m de ?W, 'heeehs me h tr ys t hie eha ha e s d the eheir s de and he hi ih i-ehe he t he te a ain this the e ei he d sh has t s e n-s ve f mia iii h 1,398 izh. i eht ge 2 ve h s thehe e h e the di h at 28, ahdisih e the naiv hehdehey i ehi d i to tr tosee h f d ha een :iehhcl that the ihfhnt 4 usually will lean wellforward in order to look over the overhanging lip 32, with the resultthat food spilled from the spoon will be more often confined to the trayof the highchair, or at least to the infants bib, than is normally thecase.

From the above description of a preferred embodiment of my invention, itwill he seen that he encourages right-handedeating and discouragesleft-handed eating, and, because of the tapering sides'of the dish, itcannot easily be picked the contents'spilled, and further, the dishpromotes easy loading of the spoon and also a encoura ges the infant tolean forwardly somewhat, seats to iconfine spilled food to acomparati-ve'ly small area.

slthough only embodiment of my invention has been described andillustrated, it will be appreciated that variations may be madetherefrom without departing from the scope of the innt n, an t a thereore the hv ni h h h be mea u ed :b th se n .e the i lzl wihe 1. trainingideyice for infants to encourage the use of the right hand, comprising ahave ing ,a food-containing depression formed there; in, the deepestpart of said depression lying ad= jacent the front left-hand portionthereof as the dish confronts the infant the surface .of swirl I18:131368510111 sloping abruptly upward in the frontal leftehand directionfrom deepest part gradually upward in the rearward right-hand hi,-reotion therefrom, whereby a spoon be a erated against the abruptlysloping portion of depression surface by 'lnormal spoon manipulate tion.

2- An i ts training de e f eheo rssine the use of the right hand,comprising a dish ing a food pocket formed therein which slopesgradually downwardly, forwardly, and to "the left in the dish, thebottom surface of the pocket being so shaped that the forward andleft-hand portions of the pocket-curve sharply upwardly.

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